Just Go Run, or, How I Learned to Stop Making Excuses and Love My Workout
I used to lament, so often, that running wasn’t really feasible in the winter, thanks to the fact that I normally get home from work around 6 and by then it’s already dark. Add to that the not-all-that-uncommon cold, windy weather and the occasional rainstorm and I was lucky to get out a couple times a month for a run. Funny; it didn’t occur to me then, but at some point when it was no longer true I realized that in those days I was actually looking for an excuse not to go run a lot of the time. (Not that I wasn’t sad later about having found them.)
At some point I looked back over a two- or three-month period of this kind of thing and realized, “Shit. I’ve been on four runs. That’s barely a load of laundry.” And that made me sad, because there was no one to blame but me. Look for excuses, and if you want to find them, you will. If they’re not really excuses, you won’t let them get in the way of something you really want to do.
One day, while training for a race, a friend of mine mentioned something along those lines that resonated. It was raining; we’d planned to meet at 9:30 to run, and we’d both admitted to secretly hoping the other would call around 9 to cancel because of the rain. Neither of us did, though, not wanting to seem like lightweights. During this conversation, he pointed out to me the power of making yourself do something in the face of something you normally use as an excuse not to do it, like running in the rain. Do it once, he reasoned, and never again will you ever be able to justify using that thing as an excuse.
I think you also start to recognize excuses for what they are when you truly WANT to go out and run. This is part of why I sign up for races. If I know that’s out there, then I HAVE to go run. I am desperate not to miss a single one, ever, because of what a waste it feels like to run a race you haven’t prepared to do your best in.
It gets interesting when these two things hit simultaneously - honestly, desperately wanting to run, and facing the fact that you haven’t been able to consistently get out there and do it for the last few weeks or months. So, you get a choice. Either you accept that you just can’t run as often as you’d like to, or you find ways to stop making excuses.
So I killed them off. One by one.
“It’s dark.” If that’s really, honestly, truly a reason not to go running, then I have to accept the fact that I’ll do almost no running in the winter. That is, winter running = at least some running in the dark. Also, so what if it’s dark? This is a city; the place is choked with light pollution. And if I have to run through an area that doesn’t have the greatest lighting, I have a headlamp.
“It’s cold/windy.” Again, if that’s really, honestly, truly a reason not to go running, then there will be very little winter running. Also, they make clothes for that. In the most dire situations, I have a hat, scarf, and gloves, which I rarely even need once I get warmed up.
“It’s raining.” Same thing, pretty much. The thing to remember here is that you’re generally going to be a bit wet while you’re running anyway, so not much sense fretting about that. And again, wardrobe is key. I haven’t yet gone the waterproof socks / shoes route, but it is a possibility that’s out there.
“I don’t have the time.” Over and over again, I find that I DO have the time for what I really want to do. And, with the exception of longer runs (which generally happen once a week, and then only if I’m actively training for a long race), the truth is that most of my workouts don’t take more than an hour if I’m efficient about it. Also, juggling workouts across the week can be a useful tool if something unavoidable really does come up.
“I’m really, REALLY tired.” Well, yeah. But this is kind of like the winter stuff - if I’m going to say that being tired is an excuse not to run, then I’m going to be canceling a lot of runs. So I can suck it up (& remember that I’m usually less tired after anyway), or I can accept that I’m going to be running less.
I think that covers most of them. Finally, having a schedule makes a big difference to me. I am much more likely to go do something specific that’s written on my calendar on a particular day than I am to keep vague promises to myself about going on some kind of run at some as-yet-unspecified day later this week. I think it’s because, if I don’t do it (and haven’t actively rescheduled it for another day), I have a sense of having really missed something.
Anyway, those are my tips. Happy excuse-whacking. 